Optical logic and the self electro-optic effect device (SEED).

A major impediment to the development of all-optical logic (i.e., with optical inputs and outputs) has been the high dissipation of the proposed gates. Using a recently discovered electro-absorptive effect in GaAs AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) material, a novel high-speed optical modulator and an optical logic gate have been demonstrated. The logic gate, called a self electro-optic effect device (SEED) has dissipation limits significantly lower than previously demonstrated devices and is very encouraging for the development of architectures utilizing the unique advantage of optics for communications.